Chances are, if you run an ecommerce business, you know at least a little something about the power that retargeting has on boosting sales. It is by no means a new technique, and the logic of it makes sense. Someone shows interest in your brand, they leave, you show them an ad, they come back. Simple, right? In theory it is, but it takes a little more effort these days to really be successful.
Retargeting remains one of the most effective ways to boost sales, but that doesn’t mean you’ve stumbled on a golden ticket. Rather, by deciding to retarget your audience, you are setting off on a path that can lead you towards a serious sales bump.
So, what does that path look like? It is actually a lot more varied than you might think. In fact, there are numerous techniques to boost ecommerce sales with retargeting. From the location where you retarget, to which specific audience you go after, to the message itself, you’ve got a lot of great options. Best of all, they will all help you boost sales.
If you want to take the easy way out, you can by retargeting everyone, no matter where they land at your website. This form of broad retargeting is quick to get up and running, but will produce the worst results. Instead, we recommend targeting specific URL visits instead in order to drill down a bit more and craft a campaign based on what that audience subset has looked at.
The example above is great because it is clearly a specific ad that is showing to a very specific subset of the overall Jasper’s Market audience. The audience is likely one that saw some other fig content at the website, and now they are seeing a specific recipe related to their interest.
Specific URL retargeting is highly effective because it gives you the chance to craft a more specific campaign. Utilize various blog categories, for example, or different product categories when dealing with your specific products. Or, retarget users that go to a more informational page at your site and offer them even more information. Serve up the right ad to the right segment of your audience in order to seriously boost your ad effectiveness, and therefore, potential sales that result from it.
You can get even more specific than just targeting URL visits when it comes to your ecommerce products by utilizing dynamic retargeting. As the name suggests, these ads will adjust dynamically based on what a specific user looks at. This is a great type of retargeting to engage in, as it capitalizes on the concept of personalization, which is incredibly popular (and successful) in marketing today.
Research shows that people who are shown retargeted ads are on average 70% more likely to convert. By showing them specific products they have previously looked at and showed an interest in, you are even more likely to have success.
The above example is a dynamic Instagram ad that features not just the specific product a user looked at, but images that also show some personality and help portray the brand identity. This is a great tip for producing more eye-catching ads that people are more likely to look at and click. Static product images are, quite frankly, a little boring, and will come across as more of a typical ad- and you don’t want that, especially when advertising on Instagram.
Not everyone that lands at your website is ready to buy. In fact, most aren’t (research says that number is about 92%). That is okay! When crafting your retargeting campaigns, we recommend considering each level of your sales funnel and showing ads that focus on users in each phase.
Dynamic product ads are great for users who are ready to buy. They have already looked at your products and are down at the bottom of your funnel. What about those that are at the top of your funnel and are just wanting to learn more about you? Retarget them with content!
Content retargeting is an excellent way to put your brand back at the front of a person’s mind and encourage them to come back to your website. The goal here is not directly to increase sales, and it shouldn’t be. Rather, you are trying to educate this section of your audience on your product, brand, or service, in order to nudge them closer towards conversion.
Your ad content could be a popular blog post of yours that is related to articles a user has looked at, or an invitation to provide their email in order to sign up for a webinar, download a free eBook, or claim some other type of lead magnet. No matter what you do, make sure the content you are offering is highly valuable and relevant to what a user has already engaged with at your website.
You might think that it is a waste of time to retarget prior customers, but you would be wrong! One of the best ways to truly boost your sales is to focus on customer retention and turning one time shoppers into repeat customers.
After all, repeat customers are likely to spend 5 times as much as first time shoppers, and repeat customers account for 41% of overall ecommerce revenue in the US. They are worth your attention!
For that reason, we highly recommend you set up some retargeting campaigns that focus specifically on previous customers of yours, like the above example from ModCloth. Consider segmenting customers based on their average order value, as well as how long since their last purchase. Someone who just purchased from you should be treated differently than someone who hasn’t shopped with you in 6 or more months.
No matter the situation, consider including some type of incentive like a discount code or offer for free shipping to help encourage them to click your ad and head back to your website to shop.
That stat alone should encourage you to start with video retargeting! Video marketing is incredibly powerful in any situation, and it can become a major asset to your retargeting efforts as well.
While video is admittedly a more difficult type of content to create, it is something to seriously consider given how effective it can be. YouTube in particular is a great platform to consider for your video retargeting because of how large its audience is. It’s the second largest search engine in the world, and each day people watch nearly 5 billion videos. Let that sink in.
Don’t try to handle all of your video marketing on your own. Even if you can’t hire a video production team, there are plenty of great tools that will help you produce stunning video content for a far more affordable price!
This is a great specific subset of repeat customer retargeting that we want to specifically highlight because of how effective it can be. In addition to repeat customers spending more with you, they are also some of your best advocates and can help you grow your customer base.
With this type of retargeting, the focus is promoting your referral program that will encourage your customers to share your brand with their friends and family. The result? Discount codes, free gifts, rewards points, or whatever type of reward your program is set up to give!
This is a great type of retargeting that benefits everyone in a really tangible way. When your repeat customers see this type of an ad, they have an incentive to engage with your brand again in order to refer friends and receive a reward. New customers enter into your customer base and have an incentive to shop with you. And you? You get to sit back and watch it all happen! This type of retargeting campaign targets existing customers and indirectly helps generate new customers. What could be better than that?
With this, make sure you have a solid referral program set up that truly does benefit your customers. Otherwise, this whole cycle can fall apart and you will experience less than stellar results. Check out this guide for great tips on crafting the perfect referral program.
Finally, we can’t leave out the most well-known form of retargeting- abandoned cart retargeting. While similar to dynamic ads, this type of retargeting is for people who actually place your items in their cart, but leave before finishing the sale. This takes them one step further than just looking at the item, and makes them a seriously valuable group of people that you need to be retargeting.
While plenty of people know about email retargeting, we recommend using web push. To opt into your notifications, all a user has to do is click one button. If they didn’t get far enough in the order process to provide their email, you aren’t out of luck. You don’t need it to send a web push notification!
By utilizing web push, you can more easily retarget your audience that abandons their cart by setting up an easy triggered campaign that will send automatically once set up. Best of all, the notification will deliver instantly to a person’s mobile or desktop device, ensuring they see it right away.
Timing is incredibly important when it comes to retrieving abandoned carts, so having a platform that can almost ensure immediate visibility is seriously important. Most research agrees that sending an initial abandoned cart campaign quickly gives you the best chance to recover the cart. You don’t want your audience to forget about you! Don’t risk an email going unnoticed in a crowded inbox- send a push notification and reclaim your carts quicker than ever!
You’ve got a lot of flexibility with techniques to boost ecommerce sales with retargeting. Deciding you want to start retargeting is just the beginning! Next you need to decide which specific campaigns you want to start creating. From targeting specific URLs, to focusing on referrals, retargeting specific products, reclaiming abandoned carts, to some more top funnel content retargeting, and more, you’ve got a lot of great options to choose from.
What is your favorite retargeting technique or platform? Do you find a lot of success with social media retargeting, or do you prefer website retargeting? If you want more information on starting with these various platforms, check out our retargeting guide that covers website retargeting, as well as retargeting for social media, web push, video, and search!
Are you interested in getting started with web push as part of your retargeting strategy? Get started for free with Aimtell, or learn more about web push by reading our Beginner’s Guide.